Yugadi falls on a different day every year because the Indian calendar is a lunisolar calendar. The Saka calendar begins with the month of Chaitra (March-April) and Ugadi marks the first day of the new year.

The Kannada and Telugu people celebrate the festival with great fanfare; gatherings of the extended family and a sumptuous feast are “”de rigueur””. The day, however, begins with ritual showers (oil bath) followed by prayers, and then the eating of a specific mixture of six tastes, called Yugadi Pachhadi in Telugu and Bevu-Bella in Kannada, symbolizes the fact that life is a mixture of different experiences (sadness, happiness, anger, fear, disgust, surprise) , which should be accepted together and with equanimity.